3Harbours Murals Fest Dazzles Again in The Pans....

To see Cuthill Park alive again is still a fine moment ..

It was just five years ago that the Arts Festival began its campaign, absolutely supported by the Community Council and Prestongrange Bowling Club, to get the grass cut in Cuthill Park so the community could use it once again. Since the success of that campaign by the Friends of Cuthill Park murals have flourished - of the Witch Trial and now our third annual Murals Fest Competition. The Three Totems of John Muir carved by ELIS Youngsters stand proudly on the Hill and music and more Andrew Dallmeyer theatre are on the cards for the coming twelve months.

click to enlarge photographs



But this year's Fest, the third of our Murals Fests, with seven artists at work throughout the weekend has even more particularly special significance. That's because Cuthill Park was the regular venue for the Miners' Galas of Prestongrange Pit and The Pans in years gone by. Fest organiser Tom Ewing, also Chairman of 'The Friends of Cuthill Park', asked Poet Laureate John Lindsay for the second year running to write a poem remembering those auld times as the theme for the competition. And here is what John wrote:

THE DAY 'OUR' PARK SMILED

Lit up with the art
Of their Gala Day parade
The whole town it seemed
Wound to Cuthill Park
Where banners and bands
Painted the proud face of coal
With a candyman's grin

Lean lads raced the flat
Or showed their whippets and coal-birds
Married wummen ran 100 yards
While children sword-danced
Or did the coal quiz

And Pans own Frances Rowan
'Scottish Miners' Coal Queen
Held court over
The Park that smiled

With such inspiration then, how have the artists fared?

Surely they must also be inspired by the view across the Forth ... and Yes ... as work progresses it's clear they are ... but will it rain this year? It always has so far ...










As usual, Sunday did see rain and the covers were out to protect the completion of the works with a steady flow of local residents watching the paintings emerge from those early sketches. Jan Holden and Tom Ewing once again organised the entire event with their usual quiet efficiency.



The Winners Were ...

When the judges [Andrew Crummy, John Linday and Avril Wills] finally concluded their deliberations at The Prestoungrange Gothenburg at 6.30pm June 6th, the final event of the 2010 3Harbours Festival, this was their determination. Do you agree?

1st: Paul Steer; 2nd: Adele Conn; and 3rd: Nicholas Shaw. Their artworks are below in that sequence.

Congratulations to them but also to the other our entrants [everyone is pictured below of course] who together have given our community a magnificent collection of murals to enjoy for the next 12 months as they adorn Cuthill Park .... most particularly knowing Andrew Dallmeyer's new musical The Miners Gala - A Rich Vein will be getting its premiere in 2010/ 2011 and going to The Fringe in 2011.




... and the four runners up were David Grigor, Fiona Robb, Michael Jessing and Paul Dalrymple ...